Israeli airstrikes in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis on Thursday killed five people, bringing the total deaths from attacks in the past 12 hours to 33. These strikes are among the deadliest since a U.S.-brokered ceasefire began on October 10.
The escalation followed Israeli reports that soldiers were fired upon in Khan Younis on Wednesday. Israel said no soldiers were killed and responded with airstrikes.
Officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported receiving 17 bodies, including five women and five children, after four strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced residents. In Gaza City, two airstrikes hit a building, killing 16 people, including seven children and three women, according to Al-Shifa Hospital in the northern city.
Hamas condemned the attacks as a “shocking massacre” and denied targeting Israeli troops.
Hospital officials said the casualties came from both sides of the ceasefire line established last month. This boundary divides Gaza, leaving the border zone under Israeli control while the rest serves as a designated safe area.
Although airstrikes have decreased since the truce, they have not stopped. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports more than 300 deaths since the ceasefire began, averaging over seven per day. Each side has accused the other of violating the agreement, which calls for increased aid access and the return of hostages to Israel.
These deaths add to the more than 69,000 Palestinians killed since Israel launched its offensive in response to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, which killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records widely regarded as reliable by the U.N. and independent experts.
The Gaza strikes coincided with Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon targeting alleged Hezbollah sites, including weapons storage facilities. Earlier, an Israeli strike killed 13 people at the Palestinian refugee camp Ein el-Hilweh, the deadliest attack on Lebanon since last year’s ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Israel said Hezbollah is attempting to rebuild its capacity in southern Lebanon, claiming the targeted facilities were embedded among civilians. Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car in the Lebanese village of Tiri killed one person and injured 11, including students on a nearby bus. Israel later said it targeted and killed a Hezbollah operative.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers reportedly established a new settlement near Bethlehem in Gush Etzion overnight. Etzion Council Chairman Yaron Rosenthal called it a “return to the city of our matriarch Rachel, of King David,” saying the settlement would strengthen the connection between eastern Etzion and Jerusalem.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. It has settled over 500,000 Jews in the West Bank and more than 200,000 in east Jerusalem, amid international disputes over the territories.
Recent settler violence in the West Bank has drawn condemnation from Israel’s president and senior military officials. The current government, dominated by far-right supporters of settlement expansion, includes Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who shapes settlement policy, and Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees Israel’s police force.
